The list of American political activists allegedly assassinated by the US government over the past few years is quite long. In fact, it appears to be growing rapidly. So much so that Whiteout Press and our sister publication Opposition News just produced a video tribute and an extremely lengthy article titled, ‘American Martyrs and Political Prisoners’. It’s public knowledge now that Occupy leaders in Houston were this-close to being featured in the video as the latest American political activists to be the victims of mysterious or violent and unsolved murders.

MIT students want answers

Not surprisingly, the Houston Chronicle and Occupy.com were two of the sources to reveal that a federal Judge ordered the FBI to explain why it isn’t cooperating with an investigation into the proposed government assassination plot. Perhaps it’s because the investigation isn’t being carried out by the Justice Department, any state agency or even the ACLU. It’s instead been more than a year’s effort of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Regardless, the federal Judge ordered the FBI to explain why it is still, three years after the extrajudicial killing program was exposed, withholding Bureau documents regarding its level of participation.

In response to the FOIA requests from MIT students in January 2013, the FBI released 5 partially redacted pages. The Bureau revealed it had 17 total documents, but before turning them over to the investigative team, agents blacked-out 100% of the remaining 12 internal documents. Reminiscent of the Justice Dept’s admission to supplying military equipment to Mexican drug cartels and AG Eric Holder’s impeachment for Contempt of Congress, the MIT students were horrified to find themselves seeing a government cover-up of domestic death squads manifesting before their very eyes.

Rather than shrink away from the controversy in fear of their own government like most Americans typically do, the students at MIT chose to rise to the occasion. With the power and prestige of the most respected educational institution in the nation seemingly protecting their safety, the kids filed suit in federal court asking a judge to force Attorney General Holder and President Obama to release the remaining secret FBI documents detailing the federal government’s secret domestic death squad program targeting Occupy Wall Street protesters.

The FBI assassination plot

MIT Doctoral student Ryan Noah Shapiro is credited with leading the legal effort to force the FBI to release information about the plot to assassinate Occupy leaders. As  detailed by the Houston Chronicle, his federal lawsuit quotes one of the already public FBI memos that states, ‘According to one of the released records, … [REDACTED] planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles.’

The above excerpt should look familiar to Whiteout Press readers. This publication was one of the first few outlets in the nation to publish the story of the proposed assassination plot of Occupy Wall Street protesters. In a 2013 issue of Whiteout Press titled, ‘Plot to Assassinate Occupy Leaders exposed,’ we published both sections from both FBI memos in their entirety:

Houston, Texas FBI memo:

‘An identified [DELETED] as of October planned to engage in sniper attacks against protestors (sic) in Houston, Texas if deemed necessary. An identified [DELETED] had received intelligence that indicated the protesters in New York and Seattle planned similar protests in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, Texas. [DELETED] planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles. (Note: protests continued throughout the weekend with approximately 6000 persons in NYC. ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests have spread to about half of all states in the US, over a dozen European and Asian cities, including protests in Cleveland (10/6-8/11) at Willard Park which was initially attended by hundreds of protesters.)’

Jacksonville, Florida FBI memo:

‘Date: 10/19/2011, To: Jacksonville, From: Jacksonville Squad 10/FIG/CSCC, Contact: DMC [DELETED]. Title: Domain Program Management, Domestic Terrorism. On 13 October 2011, writer sent via email an excerpt from the daily [DELETED] regarding FBI Houston’s [DELETED] to all IAs, SSRAs and SSA [DELETED]. This [DELETED] identified the exploitation of the Occupy Movement by [LENGTHY DELETION] interested in developing a long-term plan to kill local Occupy leaders via sniper fire.’

After reviewing all the materials, this author gets the impression that the FBI memos are detailing a business proposal from one of the many US corporate military militias and espionage rings already working for the federal government. The shocking part about the scenario is that the FBI seemingly didn’t think the offer was criminal or out of the ordinary and instead, filed it away for possible enlistment later on if the Occupy Wall Street movement spread in a major way to any of the Texas cities under that particular FBI office’s jurisdiction.

The federal lawsuit

In addition to citing the above FBI memos, the MIT student also didn’t shy away from suggesting the implications of a government death squad program right here on US soil. ‘There is presently a vigorous and extraordinarily important debate in the United States about the authority of the government to conduct extrajudicial killings on American soil,’ Ryan Noah Shapiro states in his lawsuit, ‘The records sought by plaintiff would likely be an invaluable contribution to the public discourse on this issue. It would also be a significant controversy if it was revealed that the FBI deliberately failed to act to prevent a plot to assassinate American protest leaders.’

In response to the lawsuit, the Justice Department filed its own legal brief asking the court to throw out the suit. As usual, federal officials used the excuse of investigating terrorism for the Bureau’s secrecy and refusal to cooperate. Their response specifically blamed their, ‘lead role in investigating terrorism and in the collection of terrorism threat information.’

Without ruling in favor of either side, US District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer instead ordered the FBI to explain to the court why the government is not cooperating. The judge even offered to allow the Bureau to show the court the 12 documents in question in the privacy of the court’s chambers. So far, there has been no public response from the Justice Department.

Happy 3rd Birthday Whiteout Press! Do you appreciate hearing about FBI memos detailing government sponsored death squads in America? You won’t read about it anywhere else. If so, take this moment to make a small contribution to help us celebrate and continue publishing Whiteout Press. We’re not supported by anyone or anything other than our readers and subscribers. And during our birthday month of April, receive a Complimentary/Free Whiteout Press T Shirt with any donation of $20 or more. For details, click here. And as always, thank you for any help you may be able to give.